rty miles in length. They end at the
mountain Roganora. Two rocks, twelve or fifteen feet above the water at
the time we were there, may in flood be covered and dangerous. Our chief
danger was the wind, a very slight ripple being sufficient to swamp
canoes.

CHAPTER IX.

The waterbuck--Disaster in Kebrabasa rapids--The "Ma Robert"
founders--Arrival of the "Pioneer" and Bishop Mackenzie's
party--Portuguese slave-trade--Interference and liberation.

We arrived at Zumbo, at the mouth of the Loangwa, on the 1st of November.
The water being scarcely up to the knee, our land party waded this river
with ease. A buffalo was shot on an island opposite Pangola's, the ball
lodging in the spleen. It was found to have been wounded in the same
organ previously, for an iron bullet was imbedded in it, and the wound
entirely healed. A great deal of the plant _Pistia stratiotes_ was seen
floating in the river. Many people inhabit the right bank about this
part, yet the game is very abundant.

As we were taking our breakfast on the morning of the 2nd, the Mambo
Kazai, of whom we knew nothing, and his men came with their muskets and
large powder-horns to levy a fine, and obtain payment for the wood we
used in cooking. But on our replying to his demand that we were English,
"Oh! are you?" he said; "I thought you were Bazungu (Portuguese). They
are the people I take payments from:" and he apologized for his mistake.
Bazungu, or Azungu, is a term applied to all foreigners of a light
colour, and to Arabs; even to trading slaves if clothed; it probably
means foreigners, or visitors,--from _zunga_, to visit or wander,--and
the Portuguese were the only foreigners these men had ever seen. As we
had no desire to pass for people of that nation--quite the contrary--we
usually made a broad line of demarcation by saying that we were English,
and the English neither bought, sold, nor held black people as slaves,
but wished to put a stop to the slave-trade altogether.

We called upon our friend, Mpende, in passing. He provided a hut for us,
with new mats spread on the floor. Having told him that we were hurrying
on because the rains were near, "Are they near?" eagerly inquired an old
counsellor, "and are we to have plenty of rain this year?" We could only
say that it was about the usual time for the rains to commence; and that
there were the usual indications in great abundance of clouds floating
westwards, but that we knew nothin